Page 10 - AT

A10 WORLD NEWS
Friday 10 May 2019
Pope requires sex abuse to be reported to church, not police

By NICOLE WINFIELD The law defines the crimes
Associated Press that must be reported as:
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope performing sexual acts with
Francis issued a ground- a minor or vulnerable per-
breaking new church law son; forcing an adult "by vi-
Thursday requiring all Cath- olence or threat or through
olic priests and nuns around abuse of authority, to per-
the world to report clergy form or submit to sexual
sexual abuse and cover-up acts," and the production,
by their superiors to church possession or distribution of
authorities, in a new effort child pornography. Cover-
to hold the Catholic hierar- up is defined as "actions or
chy accountable for failing omissions intended to inter-
to protect their flocks. fere with or avoid" civil or
Abuse victims and their ad- canonical investigations.
vocates said it was a step Cardinal Marc Ouellet,
forward, but not enough head of the Vatican's bish-
since it doesn't require the ops office, said the inclu-
crimes to be reported to sion of sex crimes involving
police and essentially tasks adults was a clear refer-
bishops discredited for ence to cases of sexual
mishandling abuse for de- abuse of nuns and seminar-
cades with policing their ians by their superiors — a
own. Pope Francis does the sign of the cross during his weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Square, scandal that has exploded
The new law provides whis- at the Vatican, Wednesday, May 8, 2019. in recent months following
tle-blower protections for Associated Press reports, including by The
anyone making a report Associated Press and the
and requires all dioceses eruption of the sex abuse "People must know that remain secretive and inter- Vatican's own women's
around the world to have a and cover-up scandal that bishops are at the service nal to the church. magazine, of sisters be-
system in place to receive has devastated the cred- of the people," said Arch- "Until heads roll, until bish- ing sexually assaulted by
the claims confidentially. ibility of the Catholic hier- bishop Charles Scicluna, ops are fired — plain and priests. But Scicluna said it
And it outlines procedures archy and his own papacy. the Vatican's longtime sex simple — they'll continue to obviously covered lay peo-
for conducting preliminary And it provides a new legal crimes prosecutor. "They ignore and conceal clergy ple as well.
investigations when the ac- framework for U.S. bishops are not above the law, and sex crimes," he said. The pope mandated that
cused is a bishop, cardinal as they prepare to adopt if they do wrong, they must If implemented fully, victims reporting abuse
or religious superior. accountability measures be reported." though, the Vatican could must be welcomed, lis-
It's the latest effort by Fran- next month to respond to The decree requires the well see an avalanche of tened to and supported by
cis to respond to the global the scandal there. world's 415,000 Catholic abuse and cover-up re- the hierarchy, as well as of-
priests and 660,000 religious ports in the coming years. fered spiritual, medical and
sisters to inform church au- The decree can be ap- psychological assistance.
thorities when they learn plied retroactively, mean- The law says victims can't
or have "well-founded ing priests and nuns are be forced to keep quiet,
motives to believe" that a now required to report even though the investiga-
cleric or sister has engaged even old cases of sexual tion itself is still conducted
in sexual abuse of a minor, wrongdoing and cover-ups under pontifical secret.
sexual misconduct with an — and enjoy whistleblower And in a novelty, the law
adult, possession of child protections for doing so. requires that if victims re-
pornography — or that a Previously such reporting quest it, they must be in-
superior has covered up was left up to the con- formed of the outcome of
any of those crimes. science of individual priests the investigation — again
It doesn't require them to and nuns. a response to longstanding
report to police, however. Anne Barrett Doyle of Bish- complaints that victims are
The Vatican has long ar- opAccountability praised kept in the dark about how
gued that different legal some of the provisions, but their claims were handled.
systems in different coun- said they weren't enough Victims and their advo-
tries make a universal re- primarily because there cates have long com-
porting law impossible, and were no provisions to sanc- plained that bishops and
that imposing one could tion violations and kept the religious superiors have es-
endanger the church in process entirely internal to caped justice for having
places where Catholics are the church. engaged in sexual miscon-
a persecuted minority. But "Bishops watching bishops duct themselves, or failed
the procedures do for the does not work," she said. to protect their flocks from
first time put into univer- While there are no punitive predator priests. Bishops
sal church law that clergy measures foreseen for non- and religious superiors are
must obey civil reporting re- compliance, bishops and accountable only to the
quirements where they live, religious superiors could pope, and only a hand-
and that their obligation to be accused of cover-up ful have ever been sanc-
report to the church in no or negligence if they fail to tioned or removed for sex
way interferes with that. implement the provisions, abuse or cover-up, and
Abuse survivor David Clo- or retaliate against priests usually only after particu-
hessy dismissed the new set and nuns who make re- larly egregious misbehavior
of procedures, saying they ports against them. became public.q